


This Is Not the End

by hhertzof



Category: Doctor Who (2005), The West Wing
Genre: Character Death Fix, Crossover, F/M, Meddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-16
Updated: 2013-06-16
Packaged: 2017-12-15 03:23:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/844720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone's meddling with time and River and Jack are called in to fix it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Is Not the End

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raktajinos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raktajinos/gifts).



> The scandal Sarah Jane was involved in is from her eponymous Big Finish audio series. It's not relevant, save for the timing (set in 2002) and as a plot point as to why a respected journalist couldn't just walk in to see C.J..
> 
> We matched on the C.J./Simon pairing, but when I started to write it, this came out.

River edged around the corner of the building. She had a good head for heights, but the ledge was narrow and the building was old. She could feel bits breaking off beneath her feet and adjusted her weight to compensate. There were days in her life she felt like everything was mapped out for her, but this wasn't one of them. She'd had no hints from the Doctor or from history about how this would end. All she had was the note given to her by the woman in the shop telling her to meet Jack Harkness at a certain date and time. She knew who he was, of course. One couldn't spend as much time with the Doctor as she had and not know about Jack.

The device in her hand allowed her to open a hole in the window and she stepped through, allowing it to shut behind her. She scanned the room, established that she was alone and sat down to wait.

Jack fiddled with the note as he strode through the hall of the expensive hotel. Someone had good taste. The woman in the shop claimed to know him, though he'd never met her before. Time travel did that to you. If it was a trap, it was unlikely to hold him for long. Even without his vortex manipulator, he was certain that whomever had summoned him had underestimated him. Most people did.

The door to room 2245 looked like all the other doors on the floor, but he eyed it warily. It was a moment's work to trigger the mechanism and unlock the door, but he nudged it open slowly, gun in hand, just in case.

* * *

_"You're meddling." The voice had a Northern accent._

_"Am I?" The woman stared out the window at the bodega across the street, not bothering to turn around. "I must have learnt it from you." She hadn't seen this incarnation since the war. She wondered if he'd mellowed when he met Rose. She wondered too, if he had met Rose yet, but she didn't ask._

_"You're risking a temporal paradox. The Blinovitch Limitation effect-" he blustered._

_This might have been amusing if the consequences weren't so serious. "I wasn't even in this country this year. As I recall, I was living under a fake name trying to figure out who had framed me and ruined my career." A minor fiction, but she'd be too busy here, distracting him from interfering to get anywhere near her past self. She'd seen the way that timeline went, and it hadn't been good._

_That got a moment's silence from him. "You shouldn't be interfering at all. The death of a government agent is hardly cause-"_

_She interrupted again "The father of President Cregg. Or at least, he would have been, if he hadn't been shot. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not trying to alter history, just return it to its proper course." Once she would have trusted- no, she'd never trusted the Time Lords- expected them to handle such things, but the Doctor couldn't do it all alone. Sarah debated using the "fixing something that was broken during the war" line, but it was neither true nor apt to make that much of a difference._

_"By sending in Jack Harkness? I'd hardly call him a reliable agent. And who is that woman?"_

_He knew Jack then. "No one you've met yet." After a moment, she took pity on him. "A glimpse of your future, if you will, but you, of all people should know the dangers of crossing your own timeline."_

_To her relief, he seemed to accept this. "Shouldn't you be over there, briefing them?"_

_"I left them a packet. Newspaper clippings, that sort of thing. They're both bright enough to figure it out on their own." And I needed to be here to stop you from doing something incredibly stupid, because you thought we were the cause._

* * *

"Sarah Jane Smith? Isn't that the so-called journalist whose reputation was based on falsifying stories?" C.J. remembered the scandal of a few years ago all too well. "How did she even get through? Oh, never mind. Just tell her we're not interested, and if she persists, hang up."

"Does that happen often?" Simon asked.

"What? Discredited journalists trying to worm their way into my press room? About twice a week." That was probably an exaggeration, but it was bad enough having to deal with the Secret Service's nose in her business without dwelling on something that happened often.

"C.J." He didn't say anything more, just folded his arms and gave her the Look.

C.J. sighed. "For heaven's sake, it's not like your men aren't already listening in. But she was probably just trying to find a way back in to journalism after the scandal. It happens. I barely have room in my press room for the reporters who work for major papers. I'm not going to let a freelancer in without sterling credentials and she doesn't have those any more. It's a pity really. There was a time when I would have loved to have someone of that calibre in the press room. She did fill in a time or two for one of the regular stringers."

Simon seemed to drop the subject, but she knew his people would be going over the phone call with a fine-toothed comb. Or whatever one used on audio recordings. C.J. pushed it from her mind. She had real work to do and she could deal with Sarah Jane Smith later.

* * *

River eyed Jack warily. She'd never trusted Time Agents and this was hardly the time to start. And his flirting was just as cheesy as the Doctor had described. "So what have we got?" She didn't call him sweetie. She saved that for people she liked and she wasn't sure she liked Jack yet.

Jack spread the file and himself out on the bed and winked at her. "Newspaper clippings, autopsy report, murder investigation. All for a single case. The murder of Simon Donovan, one week from now. Whoever he was. Is."

Moving the chair closer to the bed, River studied the papers. "One of these things is not like the others," she muttered before reaching out and selecting a sheet from the pile. She rubbed it between her fingers to be certain. "All the rest of this is contemporary," she said, waving her hand over the pile. "Articles clipped from actual newspapers and printouts with current day technology."

He reached for the sheet and she handed it to him. It took him only a moment to feel what she had. "They won't develop a substitute for wood pulp for another 50 years. Good eyes." Jack glanced at the sheet. "Bingo. One article on President Josie Cregg who won't be born for another seven years. Parents C.J. Cregg and Simon Donovan. Second female President of the United States. Responsible for a number of conservation efforts including," he looked at River and grinned, "the initiative to retire wood pulp based paper for good and restore the rainforests."

"So all we need to do is stop him from being killed before his time. Sounds simple enough."

"Too simple, maybe. Why call us in? Clearly whoever arranged this has _unexpected_ resources; this is the sort of detail I would have expected from the Time Agency." It did remind Jack of his old assignments, though they had had the advantage of being programmed straight into his wrist unit. Much less messy.

"Two old hands at time travel?" River asked dubiously. "Or perhaps the people behind it are very tricky indeed. But I'm not sure I trust our mysterious handler either. If we even met the same person."

"Short woman with a blue wig who didn't appreciate my flirting?" Jack asked.

"Yes, to the first two. I can't say I tried flirting with her," River replied tartly. "That's your job."

* * *

_"They're leaving." The Doctor leaned against the wall and stared at her. "And you haven't explained anything yet. Why not just step in yourself? It's not like you haven't done it before. Or I could."_

_"There's nothing to explain. And I can't step in because in this time my journalistic credentials have been revoked and my reputation damaged. They're not going to let me anywhere near the White House Press Secretary and even if they did, I doubt she'd listen to me. A few years ago, a few years in the future, I would have been there to stop it, instead of being limited by circumstances." But she hadn't known then where and when they would strike or that there might have been a second target._

_"You're here now." He looked tired and she was sure she did too._

_"Pulling strings from afar." It was all she could do and it would have to be enough._

* * *

Once Simon Donovan went off duty that night, he read _all_ the reports his people had stacked on his desk regarding Sarah Jane Smith, then made a couple of calls to certain friends in England, not caring that it was the middle of the night over there. He'd thought the name sounded familiar. He grabbed his jacket and turned off the light in his office. He had a stop to make on his way home.

* * *

Sarah Jane wasn't surprised when a Secret Service agent showed up at her door. She was polite, showed the appropriate paperwork, and didn't interfere when they searched her hotel room. She'd carefully placed the train ticket to New York and the plane ticket from JFK to London on the desk. The New York Times was her obvious next step, and her aunt was in NYC for a conference. It had been a gamble, calling the White House Press Office and she was going to have to improvise from here. It wasn't as though she could count on the Doctor to show up and save the day.

But once he had finished, the Secret Service agent swept for bugs and then settled down in the desk chair. "I've heard some interesting things about you from my friends, Ms. Smith." He dropped a few names.

She hadn't expected that, but she was good enough at what she did not to show surprise. "So tell me, Mr. Donovan, why are you here?"

"I believe I should be asking you that, Ms. Smith. And, no, I don't think you're the one threatening C.J. Cregg. It's not your style. So tell me what's really going on."

Sarah Jane wasn't foolish enough to do just that. "I've got a lead on the people who may be after your Ms. Cregg. I know my word doesn't mean much these days, but I was just trying to get close enough to drop a tip in her ear. You'll do, if you're willing to listen. I don't ask or expect you to trust me, but it won't take much manpower to check this out. Is she going to New York with the President? Oh, never mind, I know you won't answer that, but listen to me." She gave him what details she dared to divulge.

Agent Donovan listened without comment. "I'll look into it. And you'll do yourself a favor and stay far away from Ms. Cregg while you're in New York. You don't want to incriminate yourself."

Sarah Jane nodded and showed him to the door. At least, he'd listened. But this meant that she was going to be severely curtailed in tracking down the group responsible. She was going to have to trust that this Agent Donovan knew his job and would do it competently.

* * *

Jack and River used the next week to get the lay of the land, try out all the best restaurants, and, in Jack's case, the nightlife. River rolled her eyes and left him to it whilst she took the opportunity to break into a museum or two and leave some messages.

On the fourth night, she ran into the Doctor, Amy and Rory in the Museum of Natural History, just as she was about to etch a choice phrase in Gallifreyan into a priceless sapphire.

"Defacing public property again?" he asked.

She hadn't even heard the TARDIS. "I haven't finished yet. Come back in two days."

"The pattern was rather predictable. Almost boring," the Doctor taunted. "Losing your touch, perhaps?"

"Never, sweetie." Inside she was seething. How dare he call her predictable.

"Settle down, children," Amy said. "You can flirt later."

They both glared at her. River regretted ever telling Amy that she was her mother. 

"So, given the date, I'm guessing this is about Simon Donovan?"

"You sent her, didn't you?"

The Doctor grinned. "She sent me, so to speak. Cornered my earlier self and let slip just enough information that I'd handle it when it came up."

"She?" Amy asked.

"Sarah Jane Smith, one time companion of mine. Spent a little too much time with a former incarnation of mine who was inclined to meddle. She's," he paused, "a little too good at it for anyone's comfort."

"What did she tell you?" River demanded.

"Just that your job was to make sure that Simon Donovan was alive four days from now, that mine was to figure out who's behind all this, and that she had been tailed by the Secret Service and was unable to get close enough to do anything to help the first time she tried to fix this."

"Had been? Oh, you mean you met her in her future and she told you this." Rory was starting to feel like she had got the hang of time travel. Maybe.

"Exactly." The Doctor grinned at her. "River, you probably won't see me again during this caper. Jack doesn't know I survived yet and won't for another few years. I've also got a past self to avoid. Have fun and try not to kill Jack. It won't take."

River snorted. "I'll do my best."

* * *

_The future Sarah was there, in the empty apartment overlooking the bodega when he returned. "Tonight's the night." The Doctor looked at her, suddenly suspicious. "You don't have a shotgun hidden around here?" She'd been a crack shot, back in the day and he might have completely misjudged her._

_"He was killed by a handgun- robbery gone wrong. I didn't know at the time that C.J. wasn't the only potential target." Sarah stared out the window, her face in shadow. "I've seen what the world becomes, if Josie Cregg doesn't exist. I've seen what the world becomes if she does. I know which one I'd rather live in."_

* * *

Once Sarah Jane heard, through channels she didn't divulge to anyone, even her aunt, that the man who was threatening C.J. Cregg had been caught in New Jersey, she breathed a sigh of relief. With the help of the Doctor, Amy and Rory, she'd managed to track down the temporal device and disable it, leaving the rest for the Time Agents to clean up. She hadn't dared show up at the performance that C.J. was attending with the President, but, now the danger was past and she could enjoy a late dinner with Aunt Lavinia, the Doctor, and the Ponds instead.

 

The woman - Sarah - had told them not to interfere, but that had never stopped River. She downed the second robber before he got his shot, or the guy she thought was the second robber. It turned out there were three. All that was left was to fall back on the original plan. Jack arrived in the ambulance, and between the two of them, they did a neat job of faking Simon's death using medical equipment that hadn't been invented yet. 

Once he'd recovered enough, they gave him the papers for a false identity they'd created, with the understanding that it was only till the end of the Bartlett administration. It took them a while to convince him it was necessary, but he'd seen the third gunman appear out of nowhere and the equipment Jack and River used to heal him and he wasn't stupid, even if he did seem to be under the impression that they were part of some super secret government agencies.

* * *

_The Doctor stood beside her as they both stared down at the blinking lights of the emergency vehicles. "It's over."_

_He looked at her and crossed his arms. "That's it? So what did we accomplish, here in this room. I'm guessing you were stopping me from doing something."_

_Sarah sighed. The Doctor had never been stupid. "If you hadn't been here, with me, you would have been uptown with me. The earlier me. You would have tried to take care of it all yourself rather than calling in the Time Agents and letting them do their job. One would have escaped and gone on to cause more temporal havoc. Instead one of your later,"_ less-damaged _"incarnations was there to help with companions in tow and we were able to catch them all."_

 

Five years later, Simon Donovan emerged from his _deep cover_ mission, and shortly thereafter married C.J. Cregg. Josie Cregg was born two years later. The rest, as they say, is history.


End file.
